Congress will ‘assert itself’ on online privacy

Congressional Democrats embarked Tuesday on a wide-ranging campaign to probe Facebook, Google and their peers in the tech industry, a new burst of oversight that could bring heightened attention to some of Silicon Valley’s controversial business practices.

At the first major tech policy hearing since Democrats took control of the House, party lawmakers charged that long-standing inaction on Capitol Hill had left consumers unprotected in the digital age. They pledged to grill tech companies, shine a harsher light on their missteps and write tough federal laws, including new rules to protect web users’ online privacy.